ANT 507 - Prehistoric Archaeology of Africa (emphasis Turkana Basin)

This course is one of five that constitute the Advanced Graduate Certificate in Human Origins at the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya. Stone tools and other technologies enabled early hominins to become one of the few organisms that could purposefully change their environment to suit their needs, changing them from one among many African primates to the equivalent of a global geological force. This course traces the development of human technology where it first appears in Eastern Africa more than 3 million years ago. Course topics include the cognitive abilities of early humans implied by their technologies, early human adaptation and social behavior, and the inter-relationships between stone tool technology, paleoecology, and hominin biological evolution. Lectures and practical exercises teach students how to document the archaeological record and how to use it to test hypotheses about early human behavior. Field excursions teach archaeological survey and excavation techniques.

3 credits

Grading Letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc.)